It's time to shed the Winter armor and upgrade your warm-weather wares with some refreshing Spring pieces. Whether your dress code is all-business or casual-cool, this definitive shopping guide is here to help you start the new season in style. Chambray shirts from J.Crew, sharp Burberry trench coats, polished oxfords from Cole Haan — see and shop all of our editor's top picks below.
With Jil Sander back at her namesake label and Raf Simons settled in at Dior, doesn't it feel like the forces of minimalism just can't be stopped? Sander's Fall 2013 collection, shown Saturday in Milan, certainly made a strong case for that, anyway. Read on for more.
The exact circumstances under which Jil Sander replaced Raf Simons as the creative director of her eponymous fashion house were unclear until today.
According to a new profile in WSJ. Magazine's Winter issue, Sander wasn't called back to the house she founded in 1968 just because Simons was on his way to Dior. In fact, Sander entered talks with Onward Holdings Co., the Japanese private equity firm that owns the label, about coming back over six months prior to Simons's departure. Sander left her job designing the +J capsule collection for Uniqlo in September 2011, and it was announced that she would replace Simons at the end of February 2012.
Simons's departure, it seems, came before he officially accepted the Dior job — though when he left, he had already entered talks with LVMH about becoming the house's creative director. And while Simons's work at Jil Sander was a critical success, the profile notes that during his time there, "the company remained solidly in the red." To turn Jil Sander's fortunes around, the label's chairman Franco Pene said he wanted "to get back to the roots of the company — to its DNA. And there was no one more capable of doing this than the original designer."
Whatever the reasoning for her return to the label, where her first two collections have earned favorable reviews, Sander credits divine intervention with steering her back home.
"With all of my history, I feel it's been more like a journey, and driven by something up there," she says, pointing toward the heavens. "This is actually what it has to be. We learn to never go back, never try to repeat, only look to the future. But in this case, maybe this is an exception."
Photo courtesy of Jil Sander
Celine Dion has been on quite the stylish streak lately, especially with her outerwear. We loved the houndstooth jacket she wore recently, and now we're lusting over the Jil Sander white swing coat ($7,890) she covered up with while out in Paris. The singer completed her super chic look via dark gray skinny jeans, nude pumps, a nude Céline luggage tote, clear sunglasses, a gray scarf, and some gold baubles. You can re-create Celine's latest look by investing in a statement coat and fusing it with other sophisticated neutrals in your closet.
Well, that was fun: another Fashion Month has come and gone. Now that we've had time to regroup, it seems like this one was a lot more eventful than seasons past. Certainly a lot of the excitement had to do with the new arrivals at Dior and Saint Laurent, but those weren't the only happenings that caused a stir this month. From the critic who got into public spats with two high-profile designers to the most recognizable accessory of the season, we examine the reasons why the Spring 2013 collections will stick out in our minds for years to come.
Houndstooth has its shining moment every Fall, so if you haven't dabbled with the classic print yet, now is the time. But before you checker yourself out, take a gander at three celebrity trendsetters and how they recently rocked houndstooth. Kelly Osbourne carried this Jil Sander houndstooth clutch ($270) with her bright colorblock ensemble at New York Fashion Week Spring 2013, Gwen Stefani threw on a houndstooth Stella McCartney blazer over her silky black jumpsuit in London, and Leigh Lezark sported a blue House of Holland houndstooth top with black jeans at the designer's show at London Fashion Week. Inspired by these celebs, we set off to find our favorite houndstooth pieces for Fall. Shop everything from Kelly's exact clutch to checkered blazers, tops, skirts, leggings, and more.
"Reset to zero," read the notes for Jil Sander's Spring 2013 show, the first womenswear collection shown by the company's founding designer in eight years. Indeed, after last season's emotional Raf Simons send-off following the sudden announcement that Sander would be rejoining her namesake label, there was little doubt that the house was in need of a nice fresh start. And in a way that's exactly what we got — though it didn't come in the form of direction-shifting drama or statement-making change. Instead, Sander offered up a collection that felt comfortingly true and reassuringly restrained, with just enough modernity to provoke a little intrigue. Silhouettes were cut in structured curves that stood elegantly away from the body, while the palette of rich navy, burgundy, and crisp white punctuated by vivid orange felt right in line with fashion's recent penchant for cleverly appointed color. There was plenty to love and it was plenty serene, but mostly it will be interesting to see where it all leads.
Clean lines. That's the first thing that came to mind when we laid eyes on Jil Sander's Spring 2013 collection. In the first collection since returning to her namesake line in February, Jil made sure to remind us of her signature crisp, pristine design aesthetic by offering up sharp A-line coats with billowing cocoon sleeves, tailored trousers and pencil skirts, and sleeveless dresses with oversize pockets — all in a rich color palette of black, white, blue, and maroon. Each look was deliberate in its simplicity, and even the embellished pieces — tulip skirts and an airy white dress — were done in a way that felt cool and special, not forced. Overall, Jil Sander's Spring '13 was a lesson in smooth graphic lines, and a celebration of the restrained elegance that the designer does so well.
Those stories and more in today's news roundup.
Milan Fashion Week's official calendar will have one notable exception this September: Jil Sander.
Instead, according to a report in La Repubblica, Sander will stage two independent showings because this season's calendar couldn't give her an ideal time. Milan Fashion Week is scheduled to run between Sept. 19 to 25, but many of the shows will take place between Sept. 19 and 23 due to fear that buyers and editors will leave Milan early to go to Paris Fashion Week.
"I'm sorry not to have Jil Sander on the calendar," said Mario Boselli, president of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. "We've been friends a long time and now that the queen of minimalism has returned to design for the brand that bears her name, we would have liked to have her with us."
Sander showed her first collection for the house since 2004 this July during Men's Fashion Week in Milan.
![Last Jil Sander for Uniqlo +J Collection — Fall 2011 [Pictures]](http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2011/07/29/5/166/1668379/3b0e5cb66f630546_282678_10150729174200232_266351330231_20202942_3242065_n.xxlarge/i/Last-Jil-Sander-Uniqlo-J-Collection-Fall-2011-Pictures.jpg "Last Jil Sander for Uniqlo +J Collection — Fall 2011 [Pictures]")
